Oyo's losses increase six-fold to Rs 2,384 crore: Valuation report

The rise in total expenses comes at a time when the company has been expanding aggressively into overseas markets, particularly in ChinaETtech | Updated: November 26, 2019, 08:44 IST

Oyo Hotels & Homes' net loss widened considerably in the financial year ended March 31, hit by a combination of increased operating and employee benefit expenses, according to a valuation report filed by the company with the Registrar of Companies.

Oravel Stays, which owns and operates the hospitality chain, has reported provisional net loss of Rs 2,384.69 crore for the fiscal year, up from Rs 360.43 crore in the previous financial year. Operating expenses have jumped more than 390% to Rs 6,131.66 crore, while employee benefit expenses rose nearly six-fold to Rs 1 ,538.85 crore.

The financials are, however, unaudited and have been prepared by a valuation expert, not by the company's auditors, a company spokesperson told ET, adding that these were "provisional financials". "We would like to clarify again that these are not the final audited financials and the same will be issued later by the company along with the annual report that we issue every year and file with the RoC as well," the spokesperson wrote in an email.

The rise in total expenses comes at a time when the company has been expanding aggressively into overseas markets, particularly in China, where it has committed huge amount of capital, along with the US and the UK, among others.

Since September last year, Oyo has raised an estimated $1.3 billion in primary capital, according to Crunchbase, and is also currently in the process of raising an additional $1.5 billion in its Series F financing round.

For financial year 2018-19, Oyo's topline rose by more than 350% to Rs 6,642.85 crore, as revenue from operations rose to Rs 6,456.91 crore over the 12-month period.

The report by Gurugram-based registered valuer Romesh Vijay has valued the company at about $5.32 billion, post money, as of June 30, while also ascertaining that its Chinese and Japanese businesses, two major outposts for Oyo, command valuations of $991 million and $256.7 million, respectively.

However, since then, the seven-year-old company's valuation for its Series F financing round has been benchmarked at about $10 billion, after Agarwal announced that he was raising debt from a clutch of investors to invest directly into Oyo as well as undertake secondary transactions to ramp up his stake in the venture.

Vijay also attributed an enterprise valuation of $755.3 million to Oyo in his report.

"It may be pointed out that the valuation parameters, such as share prices, are based on fair market value and are not reflective of the share premium price," the Oyo spokesperson said.